It is, of course, well known that a ball of dough can be molded into various shapes and sizes to produce food products. Traditionally, once the desired dough was properly mixed, the dough was rolled to the proper thickness and then cut into the shape needed to produce the food product. However, this method is labor-intensive and costly with respect to retail food products and restaurant services.
Over the years, machines have been utilized to overcome this problem by mechanically forming dough into the desired thickness and shape. In this respect, U.S. Pat. No. 5,996,476 discloses a device for pressing and imprinting bread products. The disclosed device utilizes a mold cavity which is permanently attached to the upper support frame of the device, wherein the upper mold portion is pivotally interengaged with the base mold portion for forming the dough thereagainst. Accordingly, the device disclosed in the '476 patent is utilized for the production of high volumes of bread products in one size. U.S. Pat. No. 3,814,005 discloses a pizza crust forming device. As with the '476 patent, the '005 patent discloses a dough forming device with pivotal engagement; however, the mold cavity of the '005 device is produced by a recess in the lower mold portion. Further, the mold cavity is attached to the lower mold portion which inhibits the ability to change the thickness or peripheral geometry of the finished dough product.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,800,844 discloses a dough pressing machine which utilizes linear motion between the upper and lower forming surfaces. The quantity of dough can be pressed from a dough ball into a desired thickness by controlling the stroke of the upper forming surface; however, the dough formed between the upper and lower planer surfaces will not have a controlled peripheral shape. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,949,660 and 5,074,778 also disclose dough forming machines that utilize linear motion to mold a dough ball into a desired thickness. However, the '660 and '778 patents disclose a mold cavity attached to the upper portion of the mold to control both the thickness and the peripheral shape of the finished dough product.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,417,149 discloses a dough press for making pizza crust which also utilizes linear motion of an upper forming portion with respect to the stationary base portion. However, the '149 patent discloses a device which can be utilized to produce a dough product of more than one thickness and peripheral shape. In this respect, the mold cavity of the '149 patent is produced by the upper surface of a pizza pan and the recessed lower surface of an upper mold when the upper mold is directly adjacent the pizza pan. The mold cavity includes a disk shaped portion for the body of the pizza crust and a larger peripheral gap for the raised edge portion of the pizza crust. Accordingly, two independent components must be in proper alignment to form the dough into a pizza crust. This is accomplished by guide pins on the upper surface of the base portion which engage the outer peripheral edge of the pizza pan thereby aligning the pizza pan with the upper mold. As a result, a change in crust size requires a different pizza pan and adjustment of three guide pins so the pizza pan remains coaxial with the upper mold portion. Further, the upper mold portion must be replaced to correspond with the new pizza pan size.
As will be appreciated from the above, dough forming machines exist in the prior art; however, they are not well adapted to producing dough products of differing thickness and peripheral shape without considerable modification. Further, some machines are designed to be used to produce only one configuration of dough product. In addition, each of the devices in the prior art include a mold cavity on one of its forming surfaces which requires the molded dough to be scooped therefrom after the forming process.